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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Qatar invests in Israeli soccer despite Gaza and war of words with Jerusalem

Qatar is emerging for the second time in a decade as the
only Arab state without a peace treaty and diplomatic relations to have
invested in Israel. Qatar’s latest investment in Israeli Palestinian soccer
comes against a backdrop of a war of words between the two countries over the
Gulf state’s support for Hamas, the Islamist militia that controls the
war-wracked Gaza Strip. Yet, Qatar’s relationship with Hamas makes it alongside
Turkey the only country that can talk directly to the group as part of
international efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.

A Qatari agreement to donate $4.6 million to two Israeli
Palestinian soccer clubs, Bnei Sakhnin, a team based in Galilee that
historically stands for Israeli-Palestinian co-existence, and Maccabi Ahi
Nazareth FC, a squad that historically was part of the centrist wing of the
Zionist movement, was negotiated prior to the eruption three weeks ago of
hostilities between Israel and Hamas.

In a move that is likely to provoke Israeli right-wing and
nationalist ire, Qatar this week paid Bnei Sakhnin, which was the foremost
Palestinian team to include Jewish players in its squad, its first instalment
of the donation. Mazen Gnayem, the mayor of Sakhnin, a Palestinian town in the
Lower Galilee, and former Bnei Sakhnin chairman, told Israeli business
newspaper Globes that Qatar had transferred $500,000. Right wing and
nationalist ire is likely to feed on the fact that Bnei Sakhnin recently lost
Eliran Danin, its last Jewish player. Maccabi Nazareth however continues to
have both Palestinian and Jewish players.

Shimon Peres, who last week stepped down as Israel’s
president and is widely seen as a dove when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian
peace, accused Qatar this week of being “the world’s largest funder of terror.”
Mr. Peres charged that “Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets
and tunnels which are fired at innocent civilians. Their funding of terror must
stop. If they want to build then they should, but they must not be allowed to
destroy,” he told Ban-Ki Moon during the United Nations Secretary General’s
visit to Jerusalem in a failed bid to achieve a Gaza ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s former security
advisor Major General (res) Yaakov Amidror said the United States had earlier stopped
the Amman-based, Palestinian-owned Arab Bank from transferring Qatari funds for
the payment of 43,000 public sector workers in Gaza who haven’t received
salaries for month. Gen Amidror told The Times of Israel that Qatari funding of
Hamas’ military operations continued nevertheless unabated.

Israeli economy minister Naftaniel Bennett meanwhile called
on world soccer body FIFA to deprive Qatar, which is home to Hamas leader
Khaled Mishal, of its right to host the 2022 World Cup because of its funding
of what he described as radical Islamic terror. Communications Minister Gilad
Erdan demanded that the Qatar’s state-owned Al Jazeera network be taken off the
air due to its “extremely severe incitement against the State of Israel as well
as enthusiastic support for Hamas and its terrorist actions.” Earlier, Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman denounced the network despite the fact that Israeli
spokesman, including his ministry’s spokesman, Yigal Palmor, appear regularly
on Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera was this week forced to evacuate its Gaza office after
it came under fire. The network’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Walid Al-Omari,
accused members of the Israeli Cabinet in an interview on Israel’s Army Radio
of incitement and putting its crews at risk.

Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Al Attiyah, who has played a
key role in the ceasefire negotiations, hit back at Israel, saying that ”Qatar does not support Hamas, Qatar supports the
Palestinians.” In an interview with CNN, Mr. Al Attiyah accused Israel of
systematically sabotaging peace efforts over the past year. He lashed out at
Messrs Lieberman and Bennett, saying they “practice terrorism… Israel never
leveraged on the pragmatic approach of Hamas. Mr. Al Attiyah noted that Hamas
had agreed to participate in Palestinian elections in 2006 encouraged by the
fact that then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had asked Qatar to
support the group’s move. “They decided to practice democracy,” the minister
said.

The Israeli war of words on Qatar is designed to further
isolate Hamas, which has found little sympathy among Arab government in its
latest round of fighting with Israel, leaving the Gulf state as its main Arab
backer. By discrediting Qatar hopes to support Egyptian mediation efforts in
the knowledge that Cairo’s relations with Hamas are troubled because it views
the group as an extension of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Former Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani became
in 2012 the first Arab head of state to visit Hamas-controlled Gaza. Mr. Al
Attiyah said residential housing and hospitals that were being built in Gaza
prior to the Israeli assault with $500 million pledged by Sheikh Hamad had been
constructed by contractors associated with Hamas’ rival, Al Fatah, the group
that forms the backbone of the West Bank’s Palestine Authority headed by
President Mahmoud Abbas. He said the funds for Gaza were being channelled
through Arab Bank and the Palestine Authority rather than Hamas.

Qatar played an important role earlier this year in bridging
the seven-year old rift between Fatah and Hamas which led to an agreement to
form a national unity government that would be backed by both groups but would
not include Hamas representatives. The formation of that government prompted
Mr. Netanyahu to break off US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Israel’s assault on Gaza is believed to be in part intended to undermine the
government and put Mr. Abbas back in the driver’s seat, an effort that has so
far backfired.

Qatar first invested in Israeli soccer when it funded in
2006 the construction of the Doha Stadium in Sakhnin to the tune of $6 million,
the first ever official investment in Israel itself by an Arab state that has
yet to recognize Israel. The funding came after Bnei Sakhnin, Israel’s most
successful Israeli Palestinian club, won the 2004 State Cup. The team’s
captain, Abbas Suan, became a national hero in 2006 when he scored a key goal
in Israel’s World Cup qualifier against Ireland.

A week later Mr. Abbas was greeted in the stadium of
Jerusalem by supporters of Beitar Jerusalem, Israel’s most anti-Palestinian,
anti-Muslim club, with chants of “Suan, You Don’t Represent Us” and “We hate
all Arabs.”

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile